Young Women in Peril

CHARLIE SAYS (B+) - In this summer of anniversaries, we travel back 50 years to the Manson Family killings -- marking the end of the '60s, according to the Joan Didion quote that opens this movie -- with a focus on the Manson women and girls, in particular three of them, often in a flash forward to their time in prison three years later.

Mary Harron ("The Moth Diaries," "The Notorious Bettie Page") brings a sympathetic eye to these damaged souls who were lured from troubled childhoods into a cult and given uninspired nicknames -- Sadie, Lulu and Katie. Harron doesn't blink from the sexual creepiness of Manson and the grimy compound he created at the Spahn Ranch in the late '60s. Brit Matt Smith (TV's "Dr. Who") dirties up well for the role of Charles Manson, even if he's a little too tall and handsome for the part.

Hannah Murray (HBO's "Game of Thrones") carries the load here as wide-eyed naif Leslie Van Houten, and Merrit Wever lends gravitas as the jail volunteer who tries to break through to the brainwashed acolytes who continue to chant the Family's aphorisms. You feel for these young women, but they can be scary, too, which is how I remember it, hazily, from childhood. Harron uses dim lighting to ratchet up the tension from 1969, but she brightens things up for the jail scenes. This one gets under your skin.

EVERYBODY KNOWS (B) - In the weakest movie we've seen so far from Iranian master Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation," "The Salesman"), he is blessed with a great cast of Spanish actors but spins in circles weaving a knotty plot of yet another female gone missing (in the mode of ("About Elly"). He's traversing in the territory of "The Past," which landed him in France with a top-notch cast, but here he could have easily pared 20 minutes from a 133-minute running time.

Penelope Cruz stars as Laura, a mother and wife returning from Argentina to her hometown of Madrid for her sister's wedding. Lurking is an ex-lover Paco, played by Javier Bardem, who runs the half of the family vineyard that Laura sold to him years ago. Ricardo Darin ("Wild Tales," "The Secret in Their Eyes") shows up halfway through as Laura's husband, who stayed behind in Argentina trying to salvage the couple's financial mess. 

When their daughter goes missing the night of the wedding, minor intrigue ensues. Cruz cries a lot, and Laura turns to Paco to help raise the ransom money. The disappearance, from the start, has the hallmarks of an inside job -- if not a prank by the daughter -- and thus the second half can feel like drudgery, even as some secrets are revealed, none of which will knock you our of your seat.

But Farhadi knows how to dig deep into the haunted emotions of couples and families. And his visual work with cinematographer Jose Louis Alcaine can be mesmerizing at times. But from the start -- when it is a challenge to keep track of the many family members -- to the final reel when you just want the girl to show up, dead or alive, already, the director tests the viewer's patience.